
Interview by Jonathan Robinson (1994)
Il n'est pas difficile de nourrir des pensées admirables lorsque les étoiles sont présentes.
Alexis (1929)
Il n'est pas difficile de nourrir des pensées admirables lorsque les étoiles sont présentes.
Alexis (1929)
Interview by Jonathan Robinson (1994)
“It is difficult to see the person who admires us as stupid.”
Es ist schwer den, der uns bewundert, für einen Dummkopf zu halten.
Source: Aphorisms (1880/1893), p. 72.
“Thought nourishes, sustains and gives continuity to fear and pleasure.”
3rd Public Talk, Bombay (Mumbai), India (14 February 1971)
1970s
1840s, Heroes and Hero-Worship (1840), The Hero as Divinity
Quoted on his official website (30 December 2008) http://www.plumvillage.org/
“Confusing ‘Character’ with ‘Temperament’”
Clearing the Ground (1986)
Context: Character is something you forge for yourself; temperament is something you are born with and can only slightly modify. Some people have easy temperaments and weak characters; others have difficult temperaments and strong characters.
We are all prone to confuse the two in assessing people we associate with. Those with easy temperaments and weak characters are more likable than admirable; those with difficult temperaments and strong characters are more admirable than likable. Of course, the optimum for a person is to possess both an easy temperament and a strong character, but this is a rare combination, and few of us are that lucky. The people who get things done tend to be prickly, and the people we enjoy being with tend to be accepting, and there seems to be no way to get around this. Obviously, there are many combinations of character and temperament, in varying degrees, so that this is only a rough generalization — but I think it is one worth remembering when we make personal judgments.
“I was the highest-priced and most important star in Hollywood, but I was "difficult."”
Popcorn in Paradise (1980)
As quoted in The World’s Great Speeches, Lewis Copeland and Lawrence Lamm, edit., Dover Publications Inc. (1958) p. 388
The Angostura Address (1819)